


Mother Nature is a Bitch

by ab2fsycho



Series: Hold My Tea and Watch This [25]
Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, and yeah, be ready my darklings, shit just got real, that title, there i go knocking people down again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-21 19:12:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/903844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ab2fsycho/pseuds/ab2fsycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Guardians and Pitch seek out the help of Mother Nature, and she's not so pleased.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mother Nature is a Bitch

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, here's the scoop: because of how little I've read of Seraphina and how little information we have on her in general, I took some liberties with Mother Nature. Before I read the books and realized she was actually part of the canon, I started designing her. When I found out who she was, I ran with it. I hope you all like it. Please tell me what you think.

“I would take a step back from that if I were you, mate,” Bunny told North. The giant of a man was hunched over looking at a brightly colored frog crawling on one of the many varieties of rainforest vegetation.

“But it interests me!” North exclaimed. Bunny cringed at how close the Guardian of Wonder was to the red and blue creature.

“North, it’s poisonous. One touch could—,” Tooth started, but was interrupted by a voice from ahead.

“I swear to all that’s holy, if you don’t stay in my line of view, I am going to throw you over my shoulder and carry you through here,” Pitch threatened. The Guardians heard Rin snort in response. The little Fearling bastard making an appearance had made them all a little uncomfortable. While Bunny still felt it Pitch’s fault the thing even existed, he could now see just how terribly the Nightmare King wanted Rin gone.

Pitch had led them to the Amazon rainforest, teaming with wildlife that North couldn’t stop gawking at and Bunny couldn’t stop glaring warily at. Pitch hadn’t appreciated the sleigh ride in the slightest, breaking North’s belief that everyone loved his method of travel. Tooth flew alongside the group calmly, innately familiar with the laws of the jungle. Sandy stayed just behind Pitch and Rin, making Bunny think he was chaperoning them in his own way. That seemed right, seeing as both Jack and Rin had already encountered just as many deadly little beasts as North had. Bunny had to admit, though, North was more likely to get himself stung in this situation. There was no way Rin was getting hurt with the Boogeyman hovering over him like so.

Bunny rubbed his paws together furiously. On some level, he was grateful for all the dangers. They gave him something to think about other than the impending doom that would likely ensue from this encounter with Mother Nature. Sandy noticed Bunny wringing his paws and a question mark appeared with several other symbols asking him if he was alright. “I’m fine, Sandy,” Bunny reassured. In all honesty, he really wasn’t fine. He was traveling through a forest where even the plants were predators, with his archnemesis leading the way, and they were getting closer to . . . her.

Bunny realized he had lied to Jack Frost. It wasn’t that the Guardians didn’t speak about Mother Nature. It was just him.



Rin laughed at Pitch’s facial expression as he pointed to a snake. “So this will do what to me?”

Pitch wasn’t the least bit amused. “Boa constrictor. It’ll do exactly as the name says and constrict you. Now stop irritating me and don’t play with it.”

Rin narrowed his eyes, a sly yet fangless grin spreading across his ashen face. At least he was in his midway form and not completely possessing Jack’s body. That apparently required permission. “It hardly looks big enough to do anything.”

“Big enough is not an issue in this region,” Pitch warned. Pitch realized his mistake when Rin’s eyes widened again with delight.

“Ah, so you wanna talk about big enough, now?”

“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Pitch sighed as he spoke.

“I bet you wish Jack’s mind was in the gutter more often. That would be tons of fun, and wouldn’t we know it!” Rin twirled the staff in his hands, dancing on the tips of his toes as Pitch directed the others where to go.

Pitch grumbled to himself. The only thing more irritating than Rin at the moment was the scent of fear permeating from the Guardians at his back. Any other time, he would thoroughly enjoy that taste. However, he was being distracted by his own anxious thoughts of what was to come. They were closing in on her borders. He’d advised that North land his monstrous mechanism a good distance from it in the event that she reacted to their presence less than appropriately. Pitch didn’t doubt her violence. He simply didn’t know what degree of violence he could expect of her.

Rin spun in circles before him, laughing at the complicated environment that was the refuge of Mother Nature. Deadly yet beautiful. It seemed oddly fitting for her, and the thought of seeing her after centuries made his stomach turn and twist into knots.

An unnatural snap reached his ears. Pitch’s eyes widened and he lurched forward and grabbed Rin around the waist, yanking the boy backwards. Mere seconds later, a barbed arrow pierced the ground where Rin had been. Pitch released the boy, setting him so that he was standing beside him. In his fright, Rin had retreated and Jack had reemerged.

“What the hell was that?!” Jack almost shouted. The Guardians halted behind them, the tension amongst them building at the sight of the arrow.

The Cossack and the twit reached for their swords, but Pitch uttered, “Stop. That was just a warning shot.”

“She almost hit Jack,” the bird retorted.

Pitch turned to face them, feeling his irritation at their presence returning. “She knew I’d hear it. If she’d wanted Jack dead, she wouldn’t have tipped us off.” In that moment, something whizzed through his hair. Another barbed arrow buried itself in a tree behind the group, proving his point. Pitch’s rage ignited then. He spun back around and stepped deeper into Mother Nature’s territory, staring furiously up into the canopy. “Seraphina!”

At that another arrow flew past, cutting a taut vine above their heads. Upon release, a net of vines encased the twit and left her dangling from the canopy screaming. Like clockwork, a series of traps began to unfold, showing Pitch exactly what Mother Nature had at least attempted to warn them of before she set them off. Large roots curled up from underground, snagging the rabbit and the Cossack as they formed a cage against the tree trunk. Pitch and Jack took several steps deeper into the region, avoiding the vines that dropped down and ensnared Sanderson. Grabbing Jack around the waist again, Pitch pulled him into the shadows and teleported them to a branch in the canopy. He watched as three more traps were triggered, leaving the bird struggling within the net, the Cossack and the kangaroo shouting through their wooden prison to her, and Sanderson remaining cool and collected whilst dangling by his limbs from branches.

“Pitch—.”

“Stay,” Pitch ordered Jack as he ventured back into the shadows and onto the ground. His heart hammered as he searched for Mother Nature and prepared for her to appear and claim her work. “Seraphina, you show yourself right this minute!”

He had the sudden urge to stare up at the canopy. Pitch saw a hand wave, commanding the thick canopy to recede just enough to form a circle of pure sunlight. He backed away, attempting to avoid the obvious trap, and found himself against a tree. Vines then unfurled and pinned him against the bark, one even slipping over his mouth and gagging him. He realized he’d made a mistake too late, and had allowed her to trap him in the one spot in this vicinity without shadow.

He could just barely see through the blinding light the most beautiful face he had ever beheld and could never forget. Piercing silver-gold eyes with cat-like irises stared back at him as she growled, “It’s Sera.”



Jack rode the wind down from his perch, landing behind the woman that had just captured every single one of his friends without a lick of remorse. He held his staff aloft, taking in her appearance as he moved. Once again, he was faced with someone taller than himself. She had long, thick, black hair that had orchids and vines growing and thriving within the mass. Her skin was splotched with many greens, almost looking like camouflage. She didn’t wear the fine dress that Sandy had depicted. Instead, it looked like she wore a brown, leather dress cut down the sides and held in place by a belt that was lined with small pouches. Underneath was what looked like a dark leotard that covered her arms, torso, hips, thighs, and knees. Her shins and feet were bare save for a black dagger strapped to her left calf. Jack’s eyes widened at the number of weapons he could see on her. A quiver full of arrows and a now unstrung bow on her back, a hatchet at her waist, and a stone warhammer just over her shoulder made up the rest of her visible arsenal. Given her display of power through the traps she’d set, Jack hardly found it necessary for her to be so heavily armed.

And given her display, he probably shouldn’t be challenging her at this moment. But she had the people he cared about trapped and he wasn’t about to let her get away with that.

“Let them go!” he said, trying to sound threatening as he pointed his crook at her.

Mother Nature turned and gazed at him, and he finally got a good look at her face. The cat-like eyes threw him off, but her face seemed . . . familiar. He felt a strange sort of recognition as he stared at the shape of her nose and the height of her cheekbones. When she focused in on him, he felt like an insect being studied. Within seconds, however, a grin spread across her face and revealed sharp canines. The feeling of recognition persisted. When she spoke, she almost sounded mirthful. “Well, aren’t you adorable, standing there like that twig is going to do anything.”

“I said let them go!” he reiterated, his hands starting to tremble.

This only made her eyes narrow and her lips tighten into an even more spiteful grin. She spoke loud enough for the others to hear. “The Guardians? Provided they don’t attack, I’ll let them go without question.” She pulled her hammer over her shoulder, making Jack flinch as she slammed the stone head onto the ground. A wave of energy sliced through the forest, and he dared turn to look at his friends. The vines and roots that had imprisoned them released, returning to their places as Tooth, Sandy, Bunny, and North all gathered and tried to recover. Jack felt a wave of sorrow crash through him as he saw Tooth shaking from having been caged. He knew that feeling of uncontrollable fear all too well. At least North holding her was helping her settle her nerves.

Jack turned back to Mother Nature. “Him too,” he declared, gesturing to Pitch. Jack glanced at his partner momentarily, trapped in a circle of light yet again. Jack’s chest tightened with rage and anxiety as the woman before him didn’t even shift or show any signs of wanting to free him.

“Friend of yours? In that case, you’re welcome,” she remarked sarcastically.

“Let him go!” Jack shouted, freezing the ground at Mother Nature’s feet in the hopes that she might take him seriously.

She hardly even lifted an eyebrow. “Jack Frost, huh? The baby Guardian! I thought that was you.”

“Who else would I be?! Now let Pitch go!” he screamed.

“Jack, stop it!” Bunny warned, stepping apart from the others. But Jack was beyond listening to him at the moment.

Mother Nature’s eyes narrowed on Jack, most notably his sweater. She drank in his appearance before she turned to the other Guardians. “First of all, you all should not be here. I made it very clear that I wanted nothing to do with any of your business. Second,” she looked back at Jack, “why are you so concerned about the Boogeyman’s welfare if you’re one of them?” It was almost as if she already knew the answer, but was looking for confirmation.

Bunny spoke up again, “Jack, don’t—.”

“He’s more than a friend,” Jack snarled.

The fury that ripped across Mother Nature’s face was unholy. He didn’t have time to react as she kicked dirt up into his eyes, distracting him long enough to slam the hammer into his torso and send him flying backwards. His innards felt inverted as he landed at his friends’ feet, coughing and gasping for air. He felt completely limp and powerless as he struggled against the pain. He grasped for his staff, but could hardly sit up let alone locate it. His vision was spotted and blurred, his only functioning sense being hearing.

And boy did he hear some colorful language coming out of Mother Nature.



“Sera, what—?” Bunny exclaimed as he left Jack gasping on the ground in the hands of the other three.

She turned and pointed a now clawed finger at him. “Not right now! This is between me and him!”

Before she turned back to Pitch, Bunny grabbed her forearm and forced her attention back on him. “You just sledgehammered one of our own! He can wait!” Bunny snapped, gesturing at the Nightmare King. He felt just a hint of sympathy for Pitch, who was deviating between staring helplessly at Jack and glaring profusely at Sera and himself. The Boogeyman’s whole body tensed against the vines as he struggled to break free.

“He’ll recover! I’m sure he’s put up with worse from him,” she snarled back, yanking her arm out of Bunny’s grip and returning her focus to Pitch. “You hypocrite! You disown me after the bloody Man in the Moon chooses me for guardianship, and this is how you greet me? After hundreds of years, this is how you come back into my life?!” Bunny takes a step back, watching as Sera’s fury causes the winds to pick up speed. Pitch’s fury matches hers, and Bunny’s sure that if the Nightmare King were in the shadows that they’d be roiling as well. Sera snorts mockingly at Pitch’s shouting, which was severely muffled by the gag. “Oh, do let’s hear your explanation.”

The gag on Pitch’s mouth drops and he spits green before shouting at her. “I did not disown you! You gave me no ultimatum—.”

“You practically told me I was dead to you, and all because of something that a disc in the sky couldn’t even bother telling me himself!”

“You were always too chummy with the Guardians, even after the Great War—.”

“And now you’re screwing one?! Excuse you, but that’s a bit more than chummy—!”

“He’s not like them, and if he’s hurt in any way—!”

“And just how old is he? Three hundred seventeen? That’s not even a third of your age—!”

“Seraphina—.”

“It’s Sera!” she snapped, slamming her hammer down onto the ground again. The hole in the canopy righted itself, bringing Pitch back under the same shadow as the others and releasing him from his binds. When he dropped to the ground and rose to his full height, the shadows did exactly as Bunny suspected and responded to Pitch’s rage. Sera spread her arms wide in mock surrender. “And I would love to see what you’d do to me in the event that your toy is injured. Do show me how much tenderness you are capable of showing to a Guardian.”

Bunny felt the air leave his lungs at the sound of her spite and stepped back again as the Nightmare King and Mother Nature engaged in a staring contest that would surely baffle even the most intimidating creatures on earth. Pitch’s fists clenched until his knuckles were pale as Sera placed her hammer back in its sling. She folded her arms, waiting for his response to her challenge. But he stood still, his rage permeating through the wood. Meanwhile, the Guardians observed silently. When Pitch growled and looked down, unable to strike out against Sera, Bunny stepped forward. “Sera, please—.”

“Can it, rabbit!” she snapped without looking at him. “Centuries of isolation, and you still can’t even raise a hand to me.” She scoffed. “It would’ve been easier to deal with if you could.”

“You’re my blood,” Pitch grumbled, still furious but resigned to his inability to strike her. “I will never harm you.”

“But you have,” she remarked.

“Blood?” came Jack’s tired voice. Bunny turned to see the boy back on his feet, but hunched over from the blow Sera had dealt him. North held his staff, assuring him that it wasn’t lost. Somehow, Bunny didn’t think the knockout Sera had given Jack was going to be quite as devastating as this one. “Pitch, what—?”

“He didn’t bother telling you he was a father, did he?” Sera said snidely. 

The hair on Bunny’s body stood on end at the sight of Jack’s dismay. “She’s your daughter?!” he cried.

Pitch started, “I was going to tell you—.”

“Sure you were,” Sera interrupted. “Keep fooling him into thinking you can be an honest, reliable man. It’s certainly worked for you in the past.” One look at Pitch Black and Bunny swore he could hear the Nightmare King thinking, Kill me now.

“Shut up!” Jack said, ignoring his breathlessness and agony and running full force at Mother Nature. “Leave him alone!”

Bunny watched as Jack’s eyes went from blue and white to gold and black, and knew that this was no longer Jack they were dealing with. Sera prepared for him, taken aback by his change in appearance. Bunny stepped between Sera and Rin, the boy slamming into his torso before he could slow up and change direction. Bunny gasped at the impact, and in that same breath called for Sandy. Without pause, the Sandman threw a ball of dreamsand at Rin and knocked him out. The boy went limp against him as Bunny lifted him up and threw him over his shoulder.

It was almost as though the Guardians had decided they’d been quiet long enough simultaneously. Tooth flew forward, looking almost completely recovered from her encounter with the net. “Now that you seem to have finished bickering—.”

“We haven’t—,” Sera said.

Bunny could tell that Tooth had had enough. “Listen up! We have a serious problem here. It has the potential to get catastrophic and we’ve already got one unwilling accomplice on this expedition, so I don’t want to hear another word out of you while I explain the situation. Especially when the end bringer is involved.”

That struck Sera hard. Her eyes widened, the winds died, and Tooth had her full attention. “Nidhogg?”

“Nidhogg, Pillan, whatever you feel like calling him,” Bunny grumbled.

North stepped in. “His minions started targeting us earlier this summer, and only now have we realized that he’s behind all the disasters happening in the world. Man in Moon said that you trapped him before. We want to know if you can do it again.”

Sera stared blankly at them, her jaw slack. She started glancing around, not out of nervousness but out of . . . was she crying? No, she wasn’t. But she was clearly upset, and somehow that made Bunny’s stomach turn even now. One of her hands tangled in her mess of hair as she uttered in disbelief, “He can’t be . . . he can’t be breaking out.”

“He is,” Tooth stated. “And he’s already done plenty of damage to us.”

“He’s indirectly the reason that Jack is part Fearling, as you may have noticed,” North pointed out.

“Give the Boogeyman some credit on that one,” Bunny uttered without thinking.

Pitch prepared to lash out as Sandy started flashing warning signals above his head. The Nightmare King growled, “I didn’t mean—.”

“Enough! Water under the bridge!” Tooth barked. “Can you help us or not?”

Sera still seemed the slightest bit incoherent as she gazed at each of their faces. She closed her eyes, almost as if she were listening to some voice in her head. When she opened her eyes again, she stared at them. “You know for certain it’s him?”

“One of his plague spirits admitted it,” Bunny told her.

She almost seemed crushed by that knowledge. She said, “Then we don’t have much time to fix this.”

“You’ll help us then?” Tooth asked, her tone not as aggressive as before.

Sera’s eyes narrowed on each of them as she recovered her willpower. “On two conditions: one, I’ll lead you to him. I’m guessing none of you know how to find him, and even if you did, encountering his army head-on is suicide.”

The Guardians exchanged looks, realizing she was right. Bunny spoke up, “Okay, but how do you propose we travel?”

“On foot. Given you lot and your portals and flying apparatuses, they’ll be watching the skies.” She pinched her sinuses. “That also negates my storms. I’ll have to save those for the real battles.”

“And your other condition?” North asked.

“Two, once this is done, you stay out of my life. I don’t want to see hide nor hair of any of you ever again, even if the Man in the Moon decrees it.” She gazed up at the sky, as if searching for the moon. “Especially if he decrees it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously. Tell me what you think.
> 
> If you like her, I may post some of my drawings of her on tumblr.
> 
> She is now a part of the group of characters you can ask questions, too.


End file.
